A Vancouver company is planning to turn your ordinary auto into an Internet-connected smart car that has the potential to do everything from talking to Twitter to texting friends to tell them you’ll be late.

Your car will even be able to post its own Facebook updates. Or warn you when your teen is speeding in the family car.

While connected cars aren’t new, you have to buy a new car to get that feature and the apps are typically limited to those offered by the auto manufacturer.

moj.io is changing that with a little device that you can plug into your car to enable it to deliver apps through a cellular connection.

Jay Giraud, chief executive of moj.io and one of three co-founders of the company, said the open platform moj.io opens up the development of apps for cars to all developers. It also lets anyone with a car built after 1995 turn their car into a smart car.

“We are becoming so used to incredibly connected experiences through our phones, yet our cars are not really advanced,” said Giraud, who is also CEO of REV Technologies, a Vancouver company that focuses on network technology for electric vehicle fleets and is the company that spun off the newly launched moj.io.

Giraud said with 300 million drivers in North America and Europe driving cars built after 1995, he sees huge potential for delivering Internet connectivity for drivers who aren’t ready to shell out for a new connected car.

“Internet connected cars are very expensive,” he said, adding that nonetheless people have come to expect online services in their day-to-day life – services that can stop at the car door.

“There is a big separation between the kind of technology we have become accustomed to and what we have in our cars,” he said.

moj.io.com has launched its new product through the crowd-sourcing web site Indiegogo, where early backers can order the device for $89 — $60 off the proposed retail price when the product has a full commercial launch next summer.

That also includes wireless service, which allows for machine-to-machine (M2M) data exchange, for the first three months. After that a monthly connection for your car, if you live in the United States is $7.99. In Canada, where the connection is being provided by Rogers, the monthly rate is $12.99.

The device plugs into the OnBoard Diagnostic port under your dashboard and with its launch, moj.io plans to have eight apps that it has created. Giraud said he expects by next summer developers will have created hundreds of new apps.

The initial eight apps include:

FamilyConnect: an app that sets a top speed and a safe driving zone, alerting you on your smartphone if your kid goes out of the zone or is speeding.

DriveSmart: an app that disables texts, calls and web browsing on your smart phone until the car is parked or the parking brake is engaged.

TowAlert: an app that lets you know if you’re car is being towed, stolen or being broken into.

VehicleLocate: real-time tracking to let you know where your car is.

MileageTracker: to record mileage and sort out your business driving from personal for your mileage records.

AutoText: an app that automatically syncs with your calendar so if you’re late leaving for an appointment or meeting, the app will automatically notify the person you’re meeting and pinpoint your location and estimated arrival time.

VirtualMechanic: an app for alerting you to car care needs, how many kilometers who have left in the fuel tank and other info.

I paid $89 at indiegogo to among the first to try out the new moj.io. I have a smart phone, a smart TV – I’d like to have a smart car but I’m not ready to trade in my Honda hybrid. I’ll keep you posted on how moj.io works and if it truly smartens up the old Honda.

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